Do we like Danny DeVito?
Our score: 8 out of 10. Years of showing up at Pride, speaking out against Trump's administration and giving back to his home town, with no harmful words or acts found.
Danny DeVito was born at what is now Jersey Shore University Medical Center and grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey. That Jersey Shore upbringing is still where his giving goes. He's now the grumpy, gleefully filthy Frank Reynolds on Always Sunny, a role he keeps coming back to.
Nothing recent has blown up around him. The main fresh news is the show's eighteenth season, which was filming earlier this year and premiered in August, with Frank about to marry the woman he met on The Golden Bachelor. Guillermo del Toro joined the cast, and the two reportedly had a heated mobility scooter race on set.
On the harm test, his own record is clean. He has turned up at LA Pride several times, once in a rainbow feather boa that went viral. In 2022 he tweeted at President Biden to pass the Equality Act, which would extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ people. Mind you, we found nothing from him on trans issues in particular, so that's an absence, not a stance.
On politics, he doesn't hold back. In 2018 he said members of Trump's administration probably don't even care about their own grandchildren, and he criticised the White House's environmental stance. He called Trump a clown, but also called the Democrats clowns, so he isn't a party cheerleader. Where you land depends on whether you see that as refreshing honesty or as a celebrity mouthing off.
On scandal, there's honestly very little. We found no credible allegations and no court losses against him in reputable reporting. Some content-farm sites and old tabloid pieces float rumours, and tabloid territory is where they stay. A few places carried a death hoax this year too, which is nonsense.
The good stuff is simple. In 2023 he gave 500,000 US dollars to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, the hospital where he was born. In 2018 he picked up the Donostia lifetime achievement award in San Sebastián and dedicated it to movie fans. He also has a Schwarzenegger reunion in development, which sounds like a laugh.